The invention relates to an intake manifold for an internal combustion engine with a mounting flange reinforced by an insert, to an insert for reinforcing flange components, and to a mounting method for an intake manifold.
Intake manifolds with reinforcement components in the flange area are known. DE 196 13 279 A1, for instance, discloses an intake manifold with intake pipes 10, 11, 12, 13 (cf. FIG. 1 of this document) that end in a cylinder head flange. This cylinder head flange has passages 14, 15, 18, 19, which are provided for mounting the cylinder head flange with the aid of mounting bolts. Since the intake manifold is made of plastic, the passages, according to FIG. 2 of this document, are provided with reinforcement sleeves 22, which take up the stress of the mounting bolts and thereby limit the deformation of the cylinder head flange.
Increasingly tight space conditions within the engine compartment, however, require considerable flexibility in modern intake manifolds with respect to the mounting procedure of the intake manifold to the engine block. The manifold design described above, however, satisfies these mounting requirements only to a limited extent. The intake manifold with the cylinder head flange must be transferred to the installation site and subsequently fixed by the mounting bolts. For this purpose, a bolting clearance must be taken into account. In other words, there must be sufficient room to position the tool for the mounting bolts. In addition, after positioning the cylinder head flange, the bolts must be inserted into the corresponding passages, which requires a relatively long axial movement of the mounting bolts